In general, an air conditioner for a vehicle is a car part, which is installed in a vehicle for the purpose of cooling or heating the interior of the vehicle in the summer season or the winter season or removing frost from a windshield in the rainy season or the winter season to thereby secure a driver's front and rear visual fields. Such an air conditioner typically includes a heating device and a cooling device together, so that it can heat, cool or ventilate the interior of the vehicle through the steps of selectively introducing the indoor air or the outdoor air into the air conditioner, heating or cooling the introduced air, and blowing the heated or cooled air into the vehicle.
According to mounted structures of an air blower unit, an evaporator unit and a heater core unit, such an air conditioner is classified into a three-piece type air conditioner where the air blower unit, the evaporator unit, and the heater core unit are disposed independently, a semi-center type air conditioner where the evaporator unit and the heater core unit are embedded in an air-conditioning case and the air blower unit is mounted separately, and a center-mounting type air conditioner where the three units are all embedded in the air-conditioning case.
Recently, an independent type air conditioner, which separately and independently provides air of different temperatures to a driver's seat and to a passenger's seat inside the vehicle to thereby individually heat and cool the seats according to the driver's or the passenger's need, has been disclosed.
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a conventional air conditioner for a vehicle, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the conventional air conditioner for the vehicle. As shown in the drawings, the air conditioner 1 includes: an air-conditioning case 10 having an air inflow port 11 formed at an inlet thereof, and a defrost vent 12, a face vent 13 and floor vents 14 and 15 formed at an outlet thereof in such a way as to be adjusted in degree of opening by mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c; an evaporator 2 and a heater core 3 that are mounted on air passageways in the air-conditioning case 10 in order and spaced apart from each other at a predetermined interval; and an air blower (not shown) connected to the air inflow port 11 of the air-conditioning case 10 for sending indoor air or outdoor air.
The evaporator 2 and the heater core 3 are mounted inside the air-conditioning case 10 almost vertically.
Moreover, the air conditioner further includes a temperature-adjusting door 18 mounted between the evaporator 2 and the heater core 3 for controlling temperature by adjusting the degree of opening of a cold air passageway P1 bypassing the heater core 3 and of a warm air passageway P2 passing through the heater core 3.
Furthermore, the mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c control the degree of opening of the relevant vents to carry out various air discharge modes, namely, a vent mode, a bi-level mode, a floor mode, a mixing mode, and a defrost mode.
Additionally, a partition wall 17 is formed between the warm air passageway P2 located at the rear side of the heater core 3 and the floor vents 14 and 15 to partition the warm air passageway P2 from the floor vents 14 and 15. Here, the floor vents 14 and 15 are divided into the floor vent 14 for a front seat and the floor vent 15 for a rear seat.
In addition, because there is a severe difference in temperature between the front seat and the rear seat, in order to solve the problem, a console duct 20 for supplying air-conditioning air to the rear seat space by inducing discharge of air toward a console box (not shown), which is the central portion of the interior of the vehicle, is formed at the rear side of the floor vents 14 and 15 of the air-conditioning case 10.
An inlet of the console duct 20 is connected with the face vent 13 to communicate with the face vent 13, and guides some of the air passing through the face vent 13 toward the console box and supplies the air to the rear seat space to heat and cool the rear seat space.
In the meantime, a through hole 25 is formed at one side of the face vent 13 so that some of the air passing through the face vent 13 is supplied to the console duct 20.
Therefore, some of the air passing through the face vent 13 is discharged to the rear seat space of the vehicle after being supplied to the console duct 20 through the through hole 25.
As described above, in the air conditioner 1 for the vehicle, in case of the greatest cooling mode, the temperature-adjusting door 18 opens the cold air passageway P1 and closes the warm air passageway P2. Therefore, the air blown by the air blower (not shown) exchanges heat with refrigerant flowing inside the evaporator 2 while passing through the evaporator 2, and is converted into cold air. After that, the converted air flows toward a mixing chamber MC through the cold air passageway P1, and then, is discharged to the interior of the vehicle through the vents opened by the mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c according to the predetermined air discharge modes, namely, the vent mode, the bi-level mode, the floor mode, the mixing mode and the defrost mode, so as to cool the interior of the vehicle.
Moreover, in the case of the greatest heating mode, the temperature-adjusting door 18 closes the cold air passageway P1 and opens the warm air passageway P2. Accordingly, the air blown by the air blower (not shown) passes through the evaporator 2, and then, is converted into warm air by exchanging heat with cooling water flowing inside the heater core 3 while passing through the heater core 3 through the warm air passageway P2. After that, the converted air flows toward the mixing chamber MC, and then, is discharged to the interior of the vehicle through the vents opened by the mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c according to the predetermined air discharge modes, so as to heat the interior of the vehicle.
Meanwhile, in the vent mode and the bi-level mode that the face vent 13 is opened, out of the air discharge modes, some of the air passing through the face vent 13 is supplied to the console duct 20, and then, is discharged to the rear side of the console box inside the vehicle in order to cool and heat the rear seat space.
However, because the temperature-adjusting door 18 and the mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c of the conventional air conditioner 1 are all flat-type doors, the conventional air conditioner 1 cannot smoothly guide the air flowing toward the vents in various directions according to the air discharge modes, and it increases flow resistance of air and reduces air volume.
Furthermore, the conventional air conditioner has another disadvantage in that a door actuating force is increased by a torque generated because the flow direction of the air is perpendicular to the temperature-adjusting door 18 and the mode doors 16a, 16b and 16c. 